Gunsmoke Drabbles
by endybear
Summary: A collection of drabbles mainly focusing on our favorite redhead.
1. 003 Ends

**I don't know anything. It all belongs to CBS/a bunch of probably dead people. If I owned any of it Matt and Kitty would have made pretty babies together. *grins* Anyway here we go. Reviews are much appreciated btw. :)**

**003 - Ends**

**Where Do I Go From Here**

Kitty Russel had had enough. She wasn't the sixteen year old Matt had swept off her feet twenty years before. The redhead shook her head. Dodge had changed too much. Matt was the only constant in this town that had remained from years before. Doc had died the previous year, Newley had a badge of his own and was headed off to Colorado. It wasn't just the people in Dodge. The town... the city had changed. It wasn't the ruff and tumble cow town anymore. It was a real town. As long as she'd dreamed of St. Louis, or New Orleans again it didn't really suit Kitty. She needed a place like Dogde had been in the beginning.

But where would she go?


	2. 001 Beginnings

**001 - Beginnings**

**Once Upon a Broken Heart**

If her mother knew half the things she'd done for the money... well there were times Kitty was happy her mother didn't know where Dodge was, until three months ago anyway She'd never believed in fairy tales, not until Matt Dillion anyway. The old biddies in town scoffed at the idea of the Marshall taking up with a saloon girl but Kitty was over the moon. She'd dreamed of a handsome prince but never expected the big marshall to barge his way into her life. One glass of beer and it was all over.

Just like the glass beer in her hand now. "I don't know how I'll ever pay you back, Cowboy." her face lit up when his arm wrapped around her waist. Half-owner of the Longbranch. But half-owner was an owner any way you looked at it.

Her only answer was a growl before he'd slipped an arm under her legs and lifted her into the air. "I think you'll come up with a way, Kitty." he said sending her into peals of laughter.


	3. 096 Busted

**096 - Busted**

**My Give a Damn's Busted**

_I'll give it up someday_. He'd said. It hadn't taken over his life he said.

HA!

He'd broken her heart one too many times. "I won't do this anymore, Doc." Kitty shook her head. More than that she _couldn't_ do it anymore. He'd had eight bullets taken out in nearly twenty years. "I won't and I can't. I told him to choose between me and that badge a long time ago. His misstress always wins! I'm done." The redhead was near tears. She loved that idiot god help her. He'd been her man... her husband if in name only for too long but her give a damn was busted.


	4. 011 Red

**011 - Red**

**Red High Heels**

Who was he to think she wouldn't go to a barn dance without him? Just because he had to go to Hayes City didn't mean she wasn't about to have fun. Kitty had watched as he rode Buck out of town the day before. It was his job, she understood that but it wasn't hers. There'd be a picnic when he had time, to make up for it he said, but who knew when that'd be? Three months? Six months? Next year? She wasn't going to wait around forever.

Kitty heard a knock at the door.

"I thought you might need an escort, young lady."

"Doc!" despite herself Kitty smiled. "You saw him leave yesterday?"

The old man nodded.


	5. 0097 Wash

**097 - Wash**

**I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair**

"What's the trouble?"

"There's not gonna be any trouble. It's all off."

"With the Marshall?"

"I'm gonna break it off clean before it's too late."

"He get too 'frisky'?"

"No! It was nothing. I just don't know anything about him so I'm gonna break it off before it even gets started." With that Kitty walked out of the dressing room. She'd been in Dodge City for six weeks. For five of those weeks the town Marshall had been dangling on her hook. She had to hand it to him he was a gentleman, a rare thing for a saloon girl to find. He opened doors, he bought drinks, he took her to dinner. That damn badge was the problem. Twice he'd left her in the middle of a date to go find some outlaw. She wouldn't put up with it any longer. Still the girls didn't know that.

"Kitty! He's the best catch in town." Hannah followed her down the steps. "He's sweeter on you than any girl I've seen."

She turned. "I don't care! You take him. That overbearing, insufferable..." Kitty jumped when a hand touched her waist. "Will really now isn't the time I don't start for fifteen minutes anyway." The redhead spun on her heel intending to shoo the cowboy off.

"Matt!"


	6. 023 Lovers

**023 – Lovers**

**Gettin' You Home**

Matthew Dillion was pretty sure they wouldn't make it the rest of the way through dinner. It was the first real vacation he and Kitty had managed in the past few years. It was the first time he hadn't been called back to go chase down and outlaw. The marshall wasn't complaining one bit either. They both knew they were the worst kept secret in Dodge City... probably the whole of Kansas but neither he nor Kitty were this 'free' with their affections at home. She'd had her white little hand wrapped around his for most of dinner.

They wouldn't make it to desert.


	7. 026 Goodbye

**026 - Goodbye**

**Goodbye Little Dream, Goodbye**

_a continuation of "Where Do I Go From Here"_

It wasn't often Kitty Russel woke before noon but today was one of those rare days. She couldn't stand listening to Matt beg her to stay again. He loved her enough to do that but not give up that damn badge of his. She'd spent twenty years playing second fiddle to it... she wouldn't do that anymore. She was too old for his games. She'd left before but Kitty knew in her heart this was the last time. She wouldn't come back to Dodge. Matt could come running after her but it wouldn't change anything.

The dream she'd had at seventeen when she'd become part owner of the Longbranch was dead, love wasn't all peaches and cream. It was time to say goodbye to the dream.


	8. 069 Thunder

**069** – **Thunder**

**The Thunder Rolls**

The redhead rolled over expecting to land on her husband's broad chest but instead found nothing but a cold pillow, cold enough it was obvious he'd left quite a while ago. She got up and pulled a shawl around her shoulders. Newley was the marshall now. It wasn't his job anymore. She prayed it was Festus that had come and woken him up, or Doc but deep in her heart she knew it wasn't.

"Not again." She stared out the window.

A crack of lightening sounded. His mistress won again. She wasn't sure how much longer she'd fight. She loved that fool but she'd played second fiddle their entire relationship, even now it seemed after he'd retired.

Another crack of lightening, this time though the door was shadowed by the six-foot shadow of a man. "You promised you wouldn't go out anymore." she spat turning her back on the sound of boots and spurs entering the room.

_159_


End file.
